A Different Hero Time
by ImagineATale
Summary: Based on the 2017 movie, here's a twist on the climax that revolves around LeFou's redemption arc. Suppose he intervened as Gaston was about to fire at the Beast...


**Okay, here's a little oneshot with a twist on the 2017 movie's climax. I know I need to write the next chapter of my ongoing story, but after seeing the movie for the second time, I had to write something revolving around LeFou's redemption arc. I realize the ending is a little anti-climactic, reducing the transformation to little more than a footnote. But my focus here wasn't so much on the movie's ending as it was how LeFou deals with realizing Gaston's not such a great guy and that he can no longer be complicit, and his struggle over what he felt forced to do.**

 **This was an interesting challenge, because I have a hard time picturing him without thinking of his bumbling animated counterpart. Here he has a bit more intelligence, so I'm trying to reflect that he's more complex than the animated LeFou, yet he's still LeFou.**

 **In case anyone's wondering, I chose not to focus on his status as a canonically gay character. Not that I'm dismissing it, and perhaps it would have been interesting to explore how his having a crush on Gaston might effect how he feels about what happens, but I strictly wanted to focus on his character development as established as he becomes increasingly disturbed by Gaston's darker and darker tactics.**

After LeFou rescued Mrs. Potts and aided her in spraying hot water on a couple of his fellow villagers, he faced her in his direction so they made eye contact.

"Tell me something about this Beast Gaston riled us against," he said. "Belle says he'd never hurt anyone, but Gaston says he's a danger to our very existence. You live with him, which is it?"

"I won't lie," Mrs. Potts said. "The master used to be quite harsh, but only because he himself was hurting. Belle brought out the kindness we always knew was somewhere deep within his soul."

"Hmm," LeFou said. "So if Gaston succeeds in killing him, am I safe in assuming you would not consider Gaston to be a hero?"

"Oh goodness no!" the teapot gasped. "You're quite safe assuming that indeed! There's no heroics in killing the master!"

"Truth is," LeFou said, "I've been more and more bothered by the dark road my oldest and closest friend's been going down since he tried to kill Belle's father for refusing to give him Belle's hand in marriage. But when I'd try to talk sense into him or back up Maurice's story that yes I did witness Gaston leave him for the wolves, he either ignored me or bullied me. Looks like he's not the hero I always thought he was. Your friends seem to be doing well down here. Will you help me confront Gaston and save your master?"

"Of course," Mrs. Potts said. "Let's go!"

"Yes let's," LeFou said running up the stairs with Mrs. Potts. "As Gaston would say, though not quite in this context, 'it's hero time'!"

LeFou ran up the stairs as fast as his legs could carry him. He stopped, out of breath, when he spotted Gaston. He watched for the moment to intervene.

"Hello Beast," Gaston said. "I'm Gaston. Belle sent me."

This was painful for the Beast to hear. Sure Belle might not love him, but this? Perhaps if he weren't in such a depressed state, he'd have realized that Belle never would send someone out to kill him. Perhaps he'd have realized there was something suspicious about this whole thing. But the despairing Beast just figured Belle must have sent this man to finish him off.

"Were you in love with her?" Gaston asked mockingly while loading his gun. "Did you honestly think she'd want you?"

 _Just get it over with_ , the Beast thought. But what happened next caused him to go from heartbroken resignation to confusion.

"Really Gaston?" LeFou said, stepping toward his erstwhile hero. "Having trouble making up your mind? I distinctly remember you saying if you didn't know better you'd think Belle cared for him when you were riling us into a killing frenzy. Now you're insinuating she doesn't? Which is it?"

At this, the Beast turned to face Gaston and this new person. Adding to Beast's confusion, the new person was holding Mrs. Potts.

"You're supposed to ask if you're catching me at a bad time LeFou," Gaston said. "And the answer is yes you are. I'm busy."

"Yes I see," LeFou said. "Busy with your hero complex. Hero time right?"

He saw Gaston was taking aim and readying his trigger finger. LeFou ran into position and kicked the barrel upward just as Gaston squeezed the trigger. The bullet went about a foot over the Beast's head.

"Darn it LeFou!" Gaston said angrily. "You made me waste a good bullet!"

Gaston took a menacing step toward LeFou. LeFou took a step back and held Mrs. Potts so her spout was pointed right at Gaston.

"Keep your distance while I say a few things," LeFou said. "Take a step or try anything funny and you'll get steamed. I have an angry teapot who doesn't like what you're doing to the Beast and I'm not afraid to use her!"

In spite of his own inner turmoil, the Beast found himself having to stifle a chuckle at this.

And then LeFou let Gaston have it!

"No more will you bully me Gaston!" he said. "I have been increasingly disturbed by the dark path I've watched you go down recently in your bid to force Belle to marry you. I thought my closest friend was a hero. That thought is _long_ gone. Heroes don't leave the father of the woman they claim to love tied to a tree to be eaten by wolves when he refuses you his daughter's hand in marriage. Which he did because you were really going crazy there. I tried to talk you into something less gruesome but no you took us back. Without Maurice. So Belle wouldn't have her father to take care of her and would have to marry you. Then when Maurice managed to escape that fate and we get to the tavern to find he'd told everybody what you did, I _tried_ to corroborate his story with the _truth_ but let you bully me into saying what _you_ wanted. So you declare Maurice mad to cover your attempted murder and have a mob formed to throw him in the asylum. When Belle rode in on us and corroborated her father's story about a beast in a castle you said she'd say anything but didn't have proof. Which is when she pulled out the mirror and made it show the Beast. Is that what you meant when you said she sent you? Because she sure looked for all the world like she wished she hadn't just exposed him when you had her locked in the wagon to keep her from coming here to warn him. And you pushed her to do it. I've been an accomplice to your growing depravity long enough! No more! Gaston, the only one who ought to be in the madhouse is you! You asked him," here he gestured toward the Beast, "if he really thought she'd want him? Well maybe she does and maybe she doesn't, but she sure as heck doesn't want you and you know that darn well and good!"

Gaston found himself in a rare moment of just standing there gaping. Partly because LeFou had never ranted like this before. Partly because when he tried moving toward LeFou, he was treated to some scalding water sprayed his way, causing him to jump out of reach.

As the Beast listened to this speech and started getting a full picture of the situation, his grief, then confusion, then mild amusement at how this villager was brandishing Mrs. Potts, were all replaced by anger. If what this fellow called LeFou said was true, this other fellow Gaston was bad news. So it was Belle's father being committed that she'd seen in the mirror. And about said mirror, Belle had been practically forced to set things in motion for the mob to storm the castle. And now she and her father were both stuck in the asylum wagon. The Beast gritted his teeth and continued watching. He wanted to make sure he knew all the facts before acting. He slipped between a couple gargoyles to continue observing as things unfolded.

"Are you done LeFou?" Gaston asked, and, making sure to stay out of firing range of the teapot, he loaded his gun again. Then he pointed it directly at Mrs. Potts. "Looks like we'd better get your little teapot friend out of the way."

LeFou quickly set Mrs. Potts down.

"Hide!" he hissed.

Then LeFou acted more bravely than he thought possible. He jumped forward and grabbed the barrel of Gaston's gun. A struggle ensued and Gaston was pushed backwards onto the ground. Mrs. Potts quickly moved forward and poured hot water on Gaston's hand, forcing him to let go of the gun. LeFou flung the gun a ways behind him. Seeing Gaston about to take a swing at the teapot, LeFou seized her back up and stood.

"Now you can't shoot the Beast," LeFou said. Then looking at the teapot in his hands, "or...or...I'm sorry madame, do...talking teapots have names?" He never thought he'd hear himself ask that question.

"Mine's Mrs. Potts," the teapot answered.

"Mrs. Potts," LeFou repeated. "Right. You can't shoot the Beast or Mrs. Potts."

But Gaston laughed. He stepped toward LeFou but stepped back, not wanting any more hot water. He then pulled his crossbow and an arrow out of his quiver.

"I can't can I?" he said, turning towards the Beast.

"Oops," LeFou said.

He had to think quickly. This whole thing had gone on long enough. It needed to stop. It needed to stop before it went further. And all this talking and firing water out of a sentient teapot with a name was only dragging it out and allowing Gaston to remain a threat. LeFou felt he now had only one choice.

The Beast found himself truly between a rock and a hard place. The place he picked to observe was between two gargoyles and his back was against a wall. And he was not well hidden. Not well enough anyway, for he soon found himself staring at the wrong end of an arrow that Gaston seemed to be carefully training on the area of the liver. Not the heart where the end would at least be pretty quick. The liver. The Beast, without escape, was not looking forward to this. A malevolent grin crossed Gaston's face as he pulled back, getting ready to fire. The Beast covered the targeted spot on his abdomen with his paws.

 ** _BOOM!_**

The startled Beast watched as Gaston dropped his crossbow and fell forward, uncerimoneously faceplanting on the stone balcony floor. He then saw LeFou walking over, Gaston's gun in hand. The Beast realized at this moment what had just happened, and knew he must thank the villager to whom he now owed his life. He stepped forward and readied himself to leap across to the balcony.

LeFou came up next to Gaston and knelt beside him. Everything felt surreal. Simultaneously, there was a thud as the Beast landed on the balcony a few feet away.

"Gaston?" LeFou said quietly, looking at the wound on the back of Gaston's neck, just left of the spine.

Gaston's head turned slightly to face him. His breathing was labored and shallow.

"Le...Fou..." he managed weakly. "How...could...you...?"

"Sorry old friend, it's hero time," LeFou said gravely, echoing what Gaston said to him when he'd left him under the harpsichord. "Or at least end the hero complex you've got time. You left me no choice I'm afraid."

Gaston tried to say more, but nothing came out. Suddenly he took a few gasps and his body gave a few uncoordinated twitches before he lay completely still and limp. His eyes glazed over and LeFou was suddenly hit with the gravity of what he had done.

"Mon dieu what have I done?" LeFou whispered. Then he shook Gaston's shoulder. "Gaston! Talk to me! Say something buddy!"

But there was no response.

"No!" LeFou said panicked. "No! This isn't possible! I couldn't have just killed my closest friend!" He looked up to see the Beast kneeling at Gaston's other side. "Can you pinch me Beast? So I'll wake up and realize I'm dreaming this whole thing?"

The Beast sighed. He appreciated this man for saving his life, and he had been angry at Gaston for what he now knew he'd done to Belle and her father, but watching a life come to an end brought him no joy. And he could tell that the man on the other side of the corpse was troubled at what he'd felt forced to do. The Beast rolled Gaston over onto his back. He placed his ear against Gaston's chest. He listened intently for what seemed like hours, but was really no more than a quarter of a minute, but the silence therein confirmed what he already knew. He lifted his head and looked at LeFou.

"LeFou is it?" he asked softly. "I think you probably know that you don't really need me to pinch you, right?" He placed a paw on LeFou's shoulder and looked into his troubled eyes. "I'm afraid he's gone."

LeFou shook his head sadly.

"I don't know why he turned out this way," he said. "He's my oldest friend and we served together in the war. He was never really the same when we got back. Though I'm just now realizing that. I guess no one can be quite the same coming off the battlefield. But once he was declared a hero it sort of went to his head. He changed but I couldn't see it. Wouldn't see it. Didn't want to see it. I don't know how much of my ranting to him you heard but when I saw him knock Belle's father out and tie him to a tree for the wolves...well things just started getting real hard to ignore. I finally had to do something...but this? Now I'm no better than him."

"You did what you had to dear," Mrs. Potts said. "And I thank you for saving our master."

"Yes, thank you," the Beast whispered. "I'm sorry it came to this but I appreciate you saving my life."

LeFou looked up into the eyes of the Beast. Compassion and kindness were evident within them. Not qualities you'd expect from a monster.

"I saw a bit before I acted," LeFou said. "It looked like you believed Gaston when he said Belle sent him after you."

"I did I'm afraid," the Beast said. "I should have known better than that."

LeFou started patting around Gaston's pockets. Then he reached into one and produced the mirror, which he held out to the Beast.

"She didn't mean to send him...us...anyway," LeFou said, realizing he should take some responsibility. "She just wanted to prove her father wasn't crazy."

"I know, I heard everything you said," the Beast said, accepting the mirror. "I don't know that I want to see her in a locked wagon, but...show me Belle please."

 _Belle clutched the reins so tightly her knuckles had turned white. Philippe galloped through the woods at top speed. Maurice was behind her, his arms around her._

 _"You do know where we're at, right?" he asked._

 _"Yes," Belle said. "We're close Papa. The castle gates are coming into view. I just hope I'm not too late. If Beast dies I'll never forgive myself. I hope you don't mind coming Papa. I just...if we're not too late and Beast makes it, I never want to leave him again! I just hope he'll forgive me for causing this mess. Earlier he asked if I thought I could be happy there and I said I wasn't sure a prisoner could really be happy. When we saw the mess you were in he set me free. And now I realize the castle is exactly where I want to be. If he's alive."_

The Beast sat there by the corpse with his mouth hanging open. He put the mirror in his pocket and just stared ahead in shock.

"Did you hear that Mrs. Potts?" he asked incredulously. "Did I hear what I think I heard?"

"If you heard what I heard you did," Mrs. Potts said with a smile.

"I don't understand," the Beast said. "When she asked if anyone can be happy if they aren't free it would seem to mean she didn't wish to be here."

"No," the wise teapot said. "It means she didn't wish to be here under a life sentence. Not that she didn't want to be here at all."

"She's coming back," the Beast said, still in a state of shock. "Not just to warn me. She plans to stay. She no longer has to but she wants to."

The Beast and LeFou knelt on either side of Gaston, both in their own thoughts. LeFou grieving over Gaston, wondering why he'd turned a blind eye for so long. Maybe if he hadn't ignored the change in Gaston he could have done something much sooner. Maybe he could have stopped Gaston's downward spiral into depravity before Gaston reached the point of no return. LeFou also had a whirlwind of questions in his head about the castle and its unusual inhabitants.

The Beast was dumbfounded that Belle, who he'd released from captivity, would actually want to return and stay. He wasn't quite sure he believed the scene in the mirror. He might not believe it until he and Belle were face to face. LeFou's voice pulled him from his reverie.

"Uh, I hope you'll forgive this question," LeFou began, "but how is it you exist? I mean, you're some kind of animal, and though I've seen Gaston hunt many, and I've seen many species, I can't quite place you. And you talk like a human. You _act_ like a human. And Mrs. Potts here and the others. Household objects that move around and talk and stuff. How did you come into the world?"

"Uh, well, we were all born," the Beast said. "We all came into the world in the usual way."

"I see," LeFou said. "At the risk of seeming dense, how is it possible? I mean you being born I get. Animals give birth like people. But teapots and clocks and stuff giving birth?"

"Well not exactly," the Beast said. "We're all humans cursed into our current forms."

"Why?" LeFou asked.

"Because I was a cruel man," the Beast said, his voice laced by shame. "Started as a boy when my mother died and my father raised me to be as cold and vain as he. An enchantress saw one day that my heart was devoid of love and made me look like the Beast I'd become inside, and my staff the objects I treated them as." It suddenly occurred to the Beast that it was a bit odd that LeFou was asking questions about something completely unrelated to the corpse he sat beside, as if he'd gone from horror at what he'd done to a detached state. "Are you all right LeFou?" he asked with concern. "You've gone from begging your friend to respond, to grieving his death, to now speaking of other things as if he weren't lying before you."

"I don't know what to think," LeFou said. "It still doesn't feel real that I shot my best friend. But then I think the man who was my friend died long ago. Like he died way back on the battlefield and someone else took over his body. And I was such a fool I refused to see it until it could no longer be denied. By then it was too late. I think maybe the Gaston I had known hadn't died long ago, that if I'd seen how he'd changed maybe I could have pulled him back. But I wouldn't see it for so long that when I could no longer ignore it...he was too far gone." LeFou shook his head. "When I could see Gaston getting mad I'd get him to think happy thoughts to get him in a better place mentally. Happy thoughts for him were of war. That's what I tried to calm him with when I saw him about to lose it with Maurice. Blood. Explosions. Widows. It did calm him for a moment but when Maurice said Gaston would never marry Belle Gaston did lose it. I guess now I see that I should have been concerned that thinking of such gruesome things was calming for him. But I just played right into it. I'm not even sure if the guy lying dead before us is Gaston or if he hadn't been Gaston for a long time. Guess it was easier for me to just detach for a moment. I never thought I'd kill him. But I had to stop him and nothing else was really working."

The Beast tried to think of something to say. He realized LeFou had a bunch of emotions warring with each other inside him. But his keen animal hearing picked up on footsteps ascending the tower whose balcony they were on. He knew those footsteps. He stood up and leapt over the body of Gaston, just barely missing LeFou in his excitement. He burst into the tower and stopped as Belle finally reached the top of the staircase.

"Belle!" he cried in excitement, rushing forward.

"Beast!" she cried as she ran into his arms, throwing hers around him. Relief suddenly flooded through her. "I was so afraid I'd be too late. I tried to stop them. I didn't mean to set the mob on you. I wasn't thinking. I should never have even taken the mirror. I put you in danger and I'm so sorry. Are you all right? Did he hurt you? Can you ever forgive me for-"

"Shh," the Beast said. "Stop talking long enough to catch your breath will you? I'm afraid you'll faint. I'm all right." He looked into her eyes, amazed she was actually here. "You came back!"

"Of course I came back," Belle said, having finally caught her breath. "I'll never leave you again. I hope you don't mind. I brought my father back with me. This is where I want to be. With you. But has Gaston seen you yet? Have you seen him? He could be lurking."

"Gaston won't bother us again," the Beast assured her. "He almost got me but I got some help from...an unlikely source. One now struggling with what he's had to do."

"What do you mean?" Belle asked.

"Come," the Beast said, then led her out onto the balcony.

"LeFou?" Belle asked as she saw the scene before her. "What happened here?"

LeFou stood and turned to face Belle and the Beast. He had a flat affect, as if numbed by the circumstances.

"I finally realized he wasn't the hero I thought," he said, gesturing to the corpse that lay behind him. "I finally couldn't ignore who he'd become anymore. I got up here as fast as I could and with Mrs. Potts helping I got his gun and threw it aside. But he readied his crossbow and was going to fire at the Beast. I knew I had to stop him and I saw only one way. I shot my closest friend. But then I'm not sure he was my friend anymore. But your Beast is unharmed."

"Thank you LeFou," Belle said. "I'm sorry for how it had to end. But thank you."

"There was a beast running wild, there's no question," LeFou said gravely. "But I'm sure the right monster's deceased. Just wish it didn't have to be by my hand."

Belle turned to the Beast.

"I'm so glad you're okay," she said. "I love you Beast."

"I love you Belle," the Beast said, pulling her into an embrace.

And, in the west wing, unbeknownst to those in the tower, the last petal of the enchanted rose made its descent. Upon hitting the table, instead of the usual progression of the curse, which would now have been to its ultimate fulfillment, it triggered the transformation that everybody had waited so long for, and heralded the beginning of a happily ever after for Belle and the Prince that was finally fully redeemed.


End file.
